A man of rare attainments and a successful orange grower of the Pomona Valley is found in Frank E. Adams, who came to Pomona thirty years ago and ever since has been closely identified with its best interests. A native of New York, he was born in Vernon, Oneida County, May 6, 1852. He received a good education during his boyhood, then entered Whitestown Seminary, New York, where he took a preparatory course. Entering Amherst College, Amherst, Mass., he was graduated with the class of '75, and wears the gold key of the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity of Amherst. He began teaching in Falley Seminary at Fulton, N.Y., after which, for two years he read law. In 1878 he was elected a teacher in the Oahu College at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, and spent the next three years in that institution as teacher of Latin, Greek and mathematics. He resigned in 1881 and returned to the United States, and the following year entered upon a business career in Humboldt, Iowa, where he continued successfully for eight years, disposing of his interests there to come to Pomona, Cal., in 1890.
Upon locating here he at once entered into the spirit of the times and was interested in everything that had for its object the building up of the Valley. He bought a six-acre ranch on West Holt Avenue, made valuable improvements on the property and later added another five acres to his holdings when he purchased a place in the Alvarado Tract. This was set to lemons, but later budded to oranges, and has proven a wise investment, as the grove is a fine producer, the land being very rich and adapted to citrus crops. To the development of his holdings Mr. Adams has given much thought and is recognized as an authority on orange and lemon culture.
The marriage of Frank E. Adams on June 30, 1885, at Cloverdale, Sonoma County, united him with Miss Caroline E. Jones, a native daughter, whose father, the late Rev. W.L. Jones, as a home missionary from the state of Maine, came to California, via Cape Horn, in 1854, the trip being his wedding journey. He located in Camptonville, Yuba County, then a thriving mining camp; later he held other charges in various parts of the state, and in 1878 went to the Hawaiian Islands, where for five years he was president of Oahu College. He returned to California and died at Cloverdale, Sonoma County, in 1908, after an unusually interesting career and mourned by a wide circle of friends. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Adams three children have been born: Myron F., who was attending Pomona College at the time of his death in 1908; Carolyn A., who is a graduate of Pomona College and is now a teacher of Spanish and Latin at the Bonita High School; and Eugene S., a graduate from Pomona High, who joined the United States forces in September, 1917, trained at Camp Lewis, and in July, 1918, went overseas with the Three Hundred Sixteenth Ammunition Train, Ninety-first Division, and served nine months in France. He was on his way to the front when the armistice was signed. He was discharged as bugler at the Presidio in San Francisco on May 14, 1919, and is now at home in Pomona.
Mr. Adams served for three years as a member of the Pomona Board of Education, one year acting as president of that body; he is an ex-member of the Pomona Library Board; secretary of the Currier Tract Water Company; was one of the organizers of what is now the Pomona Fruit Growers Exchange, and for years served as a director; and is a member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church, of which he served fifteen years as financial secretary, and was very active in the campaign for increasing the church membership. As a broad-minded, intelligent and well-educated gentleman, Mr. Adams has wielded a strong influence for the betterment of the social, moral and educational conditions of this highly favored section of California, and he and his wife have a wide circle of friends in Pomona Valley.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 8/27/08, Pages 293-294
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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